The Sony Next Generation Portable (or NGP) is still a number of months away from being released (it’s due out in late 2011 in Japan), but apparently, Sony’s already starting to clear their stocks. They’ve now lowered the base kit’s price down from $170 to $129.99, which should also keep it competitive in a year that’s expected to be filled with a number of next-gen portable gaming devices—smartphones and tablets included. Prices for the PSP’s other bundles have also been slashed, with the Entertainment Pack now down to $160 from $200. Video ad filled with kids thanking Sony for, well, apparently being all kinds of awesome for coming up with the PSP, after the break.
Nintendo just put out a new gaming bundle for their Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS game that packages a Bluetooth keyboard and Bluetooth adapter (since the DS doesn’t have built-in Bluetooth) along with the game. Yeah, not everyone’s into Pokemon (we’re not), and a lot of people don’t even own a Nintendo DS (we don’t), but here’s why this thing looks really interesting: you can use that wireless keyboard with your smartphone as long as it has wireless keyboard support. That means it’ll work with iOS and Android phones. That’s interesting to us; seriously, ever since we’ve made the switch to a full touchscreen phone, typing a simple message on a virtual keyboard has proven to be quite a chore. And it looks good. Nintendo didn’t release pricing details yet, but the game bundle is due out in Japan in April. We just hope they decide to put out a stand-alone keyboard without the game bundle. That could save some of us non-DS owners a few bucks.
Sony certainly looks like they have a handheld gaming gem again once they start selling the NGP. It certainly looks good, and the new features (5-inch touchscreen, touchpad, dual analog sticks, quad-core processor) should be able to compete with smartphones and whatever else is going to come out this year for mobile gaming. Problem is, all that tech is going to be expensive—that’s a 5-inch OLED touchscreen after all. According to the interviews after the presentation, here’s a few more of the NGP’s details.
First off, the pricing. While they didn’t mention a specific price range, Sony’s Jack Tretton told Engadget that “it’s not going to be $599” (that’s the price they initially pegged onto the PS3 during it’s launch), but you should still expect it to cost more than Nintendo’s $250. Also, it looks like they’re going to come out with a version without 3G connectivity, which would be a good, cheaper pick if you’re not into an always-on data connection.
Sony has just unveiled what certainly looks like the next-gen PSP, but called it the NGP (or Next Generation Portable). Whether the name sticks or not doesn’t matter (they could call it the Magical Hand Banana and we wouldn’t care), because at least we know what to expect now. According to the presentation, Sony’s new portable console will focus on five concepts: Revolutionary User Interface, Social Connectivity, Location-based Entertainment, Converging Real and Virtual Reality. Another key feature for loyal PSP gamers: this thing’s going to be backwards-compatible with downloadable PSP games, as well as PS1 games from the PlayStation Suite.
Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS handheld has been spotted recently, this time in a series of live photos. It doesn’t look that much different from the earlier leaks, but a shot of an open rear panel and screen does reveal a number of important details. Well, important to those people who just have to know what’s under the hood, at least. For you guys who wanted to know, here’s what’s in store: the photos show that the 3DS will pack 96MBs of RAM, while the shot of the open rear panel shows an SD card slot and a 1,300mAh battery.
